alms – Goes back to Greek eleemosune, “compassion, pity,” and eleos, “mercy.” More…
bemoan, lament – Bemoaning is motivated when pity or grief is over an event that is joined to a consequence, whereas lamenting is motivated when the grief is over the event itself. More…
pity, piety – Pity and piety shared the meanings “compassion” and “dutifulness, reverence” for a while. More…
ruth, ruthless, ruthful – Ruth, meaning “compassion, pity,” is part of ruthless and ruthful. More…
pitched – Describing a “steeply downward sloping” roof built at an angle. More…
fastigiate – Means “sloping up to a point.” More…
slalom – From Norwegian sla, “sloping,” and lam, “track.” More…
squint – Short for the obsolete asquint, which may have come from Dutch schuin, “sideways, sloping.” More…
aperitif, appetizer – An aperitif is a drink to stimulate the appetite and an appetizer is a food that does this before a meal. More…
condiment – From Latin condimentum, from condire, “to pickle, preserve”; condiments are food substances used to heighten the natural flavor of foods, to stimulate the appetite, to aid digestion, or preserve certain foods. More…
innervate, enervate – Innervate means “to stimulate or give nervous energy,” the opposite of enervate. More…
stimulate – From Latin stimulus, “pointed stick for goading animals.” More…
lethologica – If you cannot recall the precise word for something, you have a case of lethologica, which may lead you to an obsession with trying to recall it—loganamnosis. More…
remember – From Latin rememorari, “recall to mind.” More…
reduce, reduct – Reduce first meant “bring back or recall in memory” or “take back or refer (a thing) to its origin,” from Latin reducere, “lead back”; reduct means “simplify.” More…
tartle – From Scottish, to hesitate in recognizing a person or thing, as happens when you are introduced to someone whose name you cannot recall; so you say, “Pardon my tartle!” More…
comber, breaker, roller – A long curving wave is a comber, a wave that curls over and dissolves into foam is a breaker, and a long wave moving steadily shoreward is a roller. More…
scend – As a noun, it is the surge of a wave or the sea; as a verb, it means to pitch or surge up in a heavy sea. More…
undulate – From Latin unda, “wave.” More…
wave – Meaning “movement of the sea,” it seems to be an alteration of the earlier wawe, “wave,” from Old English woeg, “motion, wave.” More…
alleviate – Can mean “diminish the weight of”; to alleviate is not to cure, but rather to lighten, lessen, or relieve to some degree. More…
minute, second – Latin minutus, “small,” came from minuere, “lessen,” and the term pars minuta prima, “first small part,” was applied to a 60th of a whole—a minute, originally of a circle and later of an hour; likewise, a second was originally a secunda minuta, a 60th of a 60th. More…
mince – Can mean “lessen or diminish (something)” or “minimize.” More…
bated breath – The expression is based on bate, meaning “to moderate, restrain” or “to lessen, diminish”; though bated was once rather common, it is now rare except in this set expression. More…
map – Comes from Latin mappa mundi, “sheet of the world” from mappa, “napkin, tablecloth.” More…
ream – Used to be 480 sheets of paper and is now 500. More…
bed clothes, night clothes – Bed clothes usually refers to blankets and sheets, while night clothes refers to pajamas and gowns. More…
portfolio – Comes from Italian for “carry” and “sheets or leaves of paper.” More…
admiral – First used in English to mean “an emir or prince under the Sultan,” coming from Arabic amir al, “commander of”; admiral was originally a sea lord due to the office of amir-al-bahr or amir-al-ma (Arabic), “ameer/emir of the sea.” More…
prince – Derived from Latin princeps, “chief man” or “leading citizen.” More…
tycoon – Comes from Japanese tai, “great,” and kun, “prince, lord,” from Chinese da, “great,” and jun, “prince, ruler.” More…
whipping boy – Meaning “scapegoat,” the phrase derives from the boy formerly raised with a prince or other young nobleman and whipped for the latter’s misdeeds. More…
retreatant – A person taking part in a retreat. More…
anabasis, catabasis – An anabasis is a military expedition and a catabasis is the retreat of an army. More…
ivory tower – Suggests elegant detachment in a cool, white aerie, where a poet or philosopher might retreat to think and write. More…
resile, arsle – To resile or arsle is to recoil, retreat, or draw back. More…
anguish, anxious, anxiety – Anguish, anxious, and anxiety come from Latin angere, “to choke, squeeze, strangle.” More…
kvetch – To complain chronically or habitually, from Yiddish kvetshn, “pinch, squeeze; complain.” More…
squash – As a verb, it is an alteration of quash, and means, generally, to “crush, squeeze, or suppress.” More…
tapioca – Comes from Tupi-Guarani tipi, “residue,” and ok/og, “squeeze out.” More…